Artist: Saviours
Title: Death’s Procession
Type: Album
Record Label: Kemado

You know what I like? I like reviewing albums that are a bit different. When I was but a callow youth, I used to kid myself that heavy metal was immune to fads and trends. (I know, I know, but then again, I was callow). It was only really when I turned my hand to reviewing albums that I came to realise that this really wasn’t the case. You see, I got to view them all incoming. First, they came with the identikit melodic death metal. Then they arrived with the reheated thrash. When that was over, they arrived in cloned old school death metal clobber. You get the picture. For every great band you get to review, you might get a couple of bad ones (and how I learned to look forward to getting them, allowing my more negative nature free reign), and a dozen average ones. It’s a real bitch looking for similes for “not bad” and “average”. “Quite enjoyable, but rehashed” is not a phrase that an reviewer likes writing, nor a reader likes reading.

All of which brings me to Saviours. What are this band? Are they a stoner band? Well, opener “The Eye Obscene” certainly sounds like a pleasingly meandering stoner track, but by the time the second number “To The Grave Possessed” comes along, you’re more convinced that this is a lost NWoBHM band that listened to rather too much Ozzy Osbourne circa “Blizzard of Ozz” and Witchfinder General. “Fire of Old” has a fragile, spindly guitar riff that breaks out into a frazzled High On Fire styled freak out. “Earthen Dagger” erupts with a muscular barbarian axe sound that muscles its way into finger-in-the-air war anthem. “Crete’n” sounds like the improbable offspring of old school hardcore as filtered through Diamond Head. “Gods End” sounds like an early Entombed track, if that track had been written and recorded by a band in 1978. “Earth’s Possession and Death’s Procession” sounds like a Rush track performed by Slayer on very powerful psychedelic drugs. “Walk to the Light” does the whole Electric Wizard by way of Cirith Ungol kick very nicely indeed.

Confused? You should be. At heart, this is a 70’s styled free for all, where the instruments all sound warm and analogue as music of the time should do, but with modern approaches of thrash, punk, doom and good old heavy metal mixed in. I can’t praise this album high enough for their adherence to the policy that genres are for pussys, and inventiveness shall not be compromised for lazy reviewing bastards. Each song here is a mini classic, and even the bizarrely yelped shouting vocals manage to be endearing rather than aggravating. Fans of The Sword, Mastodon, Slayer, Witchfinder General, Black Flag and The Stranglers will enjoy. Brilliant.

http://www.myspace.com/saviours666

Chris Davison

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